Thursday, 12 December 2013

DR-CONGO: Joseph Kabila-The man who doesnt know Human Rights.....

A new United Nations report stresses the importance on ensuring accountability for human rights violations committed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, during the 2011 electoral period so as to prevent such crimes from being repeated during next election.The UN registered 345 violations committed during the 2011 electoral period, affecting at least 769 victims, including the deaths of at least 41 individuals.

The report recommends that Congolese authorities carry out independent, credible and impartial investigations into the violations and bring alleged perpetrators to justice, regardless of their rank or position. It also calls for disciplinary measures against State officials and agents who have abused their privileges for partisan reasons, and for the authorities to firmly condemn incitement to violence and racial hatred.

Since last election, human rights violations have been accelerated by Joseph Kabila's dictatorship. Human Rights Watch has documented 84 cases since May 2012 in which politicians, political party activists, journalists, and human rights activists were arrested or threatened by the authorities because of their political views or published opinions.

The victims were journalists, human rights activists, political party activists, and political leaders who appear to have been targeted because they participated in demonstrations or publicly expressed views at odds with local, provincial, or national officials. In many cases, state security forces beat those detained during arrest or while they were in custody, and took their mobile phones, money, and other possessions. In the majority of cases Human Rights Watch documented, those arrested were never brought before a judge or formally charged. In 16 cases, those arrested were tried and convicted in trials that did not appear to meet international fair trial standards.

In August 2013, a member of parliament, Muhindo
Nzangi was sentenced to three years in prison over comments he made on a radio
program in proceedings that did not meet international fair trial standards.
His prosecution reflects a broader government crackdown on free expression in
the country.

On
August 13, 2013, two days after speaking on a radio program in the eastern city
of Goma, Nzangi was tried, convicted, and sentenced for endangering internal
state security. Nzangi, a member of parliament from Goma, participated in a two-and-a-half-hour
debate on Radio Kivu 1 on August 11. He and the other participants discussed
the crisis concerning the M23, a
Rwanda-backed rebel group active in North Kivu province, and the role of civil
society.

Nzangi said that the Congolese people should call on the government to end
talks with the M23 rebels in Kampala, Uganda and continue military operations
against them. He urged people to direct their pressure toward Congolese
President Joseph Kabila as well as the United Nations peacekeeping mission in
Congo, MONUSCO, by holding “peaceful actions” such as marches and sit-ins.

Hours later, Nzangi was arrested. He was flown to the capital, Kinshasa, and
charged with endangering internal state security, revealing defense secrets,
and insulting the president. Because he was allegedly “caught in the act” (flagrante
delicto), Nzangi was not protected by parliamentary immunity. His trial
before the Supreme Court began immediately, denying him the right to have
adequate time to prepare a defense.

The day after Nzangi’s conviction, his political party suspended its
participation in the ruling coalition and publicly condemned the “parody of
justice.” Following a meeting between MSR members and Kabila on August 16, the
party announced it would resume participation in the coalition.

International law provides that everyone convicted of a crime has a right to
appeal their conviction to a higher tribunal. Nzangi was tried by the Supreme
Court, yet Congolese law only permits reconsideration of Supreme Court verdicts
if there is new evidence and the minister of justice and human rights requests
the Supreme Court to reexamine the case.Another case of flagrant human rights violations is of Eugène Diomi Ndongala, a former member of parliament and minister, has been
detained since April in another apparently politically motivated case to
silence dissent. He is awaiting trial.

Diomi is the president of the opposition Christian Democrats (Démocratie
chrétienne) political party and a founding member of the Popular
Presidential Majority (Majorité présidentielle populaire) – a
pro-Tshisekedi political alliance. Diomi was elected to parliament in Kinshasa
in 2011, but boycotted parliamentary debates and votes to protest the
presidential election that was widely criticized as fraudulent and lacking credibility.
Following a request from the attorney general, the parliament voted to lift
Diomi’s parliamentary immunity on January 8.

On January 18, an arrest warrant was issued, charging Diomi with having
repeated sexual relations with two under-age girls in June 2012. Diomi’s lawyer
told me that for the next two-and-a-half months, the
authorities pressured Diomi to accept a deal in which charges would be dropped
if Diomi agreed to take his seat in parliament. When Diomi refused, he was
arrested on April 8.

Three days later, government officials held a news conference, accusing Diomi
of plotting to assassinate the president and prime minister. They displayed a
machete, empty bottles, and gasoline, which they said Diomi and 13 others
planned to use to make Molotov cocktails. Diomi was never officially charged
with these offenses.

Congolese law specifies that alleged perpetrators of sexual violence should be
tried within three months after judicial authorities are notified of the case.
More than four months have already passed since Diomi’s arrest. Because of his
prolonged absence, on June 15 Diomi’s mandate as a member of parliament was
invalidated.

A year earlier, in June 2012, Diomi disappeared for four months. He reappeared
in October and later told Human Rights Watch that he had been held in secret
detention centers by Congo’s National Intelligence Agency (Agence Nationale
de Renseignement) and questioned and threatened about his political
activities – a charge the agency denies.

Diomi is in Kinshasa’s central prison, despite three court orders from Congo’s
Supreme Court to hold him under house arrest pending adjudication of his case.
The attorney general claims that Diomi is no
longer a member of parliament and therefore does not have the right to be
placed under house arrest instead of being held in prison. The attorney general
also said that he is empowered to decide how to execute Supreme Court orders.
He said that Kinshasa’s central prison “was the only residence [he] had
available” and that he could not allow Diomi to go elsewhere, where he might
escape.

Supreme Court officials argue that there is no legal basis
for the attorney general’s refusal to execute the court’s orders. They said
that Diomi should be under house arrest because he was a member of parliament
at the time the alleged crime was committed, and that the fact that his status
was lifted is irrelevantDiomi has suffered from health problems while in detention. His lawyer told
me that Diomi has lost full functioning of his arm because of
nerve problems, and that the prison hospital center was unable to provide the
necessary treatment.The Democratic Republic of Congo legal system is based on Belgian Law and local traditions. The President appoints all judges. However, this system hast not functioned Joseph Kabila took over, and administrators, often military officers, have assumed judicial functions.Human rights violations under Joseph Kabila is a daily reality and hoping that the situation will get better after the release of this report is a forlorn and wishful thinking. The matter of fact is that Joseph Kabila does not understand human rights language.By Guylain Gustave MokePolitical Analyst/WriterInvestigative JournalistPhoto-Credit: AFP- Congolese President, Joseph Kabila-Photo